Michel Elefteriades

Michel Elefteriades (22 June 1970-) was a Lebanese politician, artist, producer, entrepreneur, musician, and the leader of the MUR militia during the Lebanese Civil War.

Biography
Michel Elefteriades was born in Beirut, Lebanon on 22 June 1970 to a Greek Orthodox father and a Lebanese mother. He studied fine arts and advertising in Nantes, France, and he became a communist at a young age. During the Lebanese Civil War, he was held in a torture room by the right-wing Maronite militias due to his communist views, and he became a strong supporter of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, supporting Aoun's "war of liberation" against the occupying Syrian Arab Army forces during the late 1980s and early 1990s. From 1991 to 1994, Elefteriades led the MUR militia against the Syrian government, and he survived two assassination attempts, going into exile in France and Cuba before returning for the 2005 Cedar Revolution. Elefteriades supported the creation of a military regime in Lebanon, and he was known for his cult of personality, often commissioning paintings of himself as an emperor or a king. Elefteriades would become a successful entrepreneur and producer, opening the successful Beirut Music Hall to cater to "hip" youths.